Lost and Found
by Lalardi
Summary: The age-old question: Can you love someone and keep it a secret from the world?
1. Chapter 1

**Here it is, my first story written for a challenge. Enjoy:**

**Chapter One**

He couldn't believe he was doing it. Still doing it, in fact. The whole thing still seemed strange to him. But he loved it.

Blaise Zabini walked quickly up the stairs from the dungeons. The entire school was dark, but he didn't light his wand. Getting caught by one of the patrolling aurors would not only get him weeks of detention for being out of bed at this time, but it would also give away his secret. He'd lasted this long, and wasn't planning on getting caught now.

He crossed the entrance hall and quickly mounted the marble staircase up to the second floor. He paused and listened for a moment before smugly proceeding.

Ten minutes later, he stood outside the door of an unused classroom down the charms corridor. His bravado failed him as he looked at the closed door, and he found himself saying, please let her be there, please let her be there, over and over to himself in his head.

He reached forward a trembling hand and pushed the door open.

And there she was.

She was sitting with her back to the door, on one of the desks clustered in the center of the room. She was still wearing her school robes, but her black hair was out of its usual braid, and hanging free down her back. Its wavy lengths were shining in the light of a candle she had lit, and had levitated so that it would hang in the air beside her.

She was so perfect, so beautiful, Blaise thought as she turned around to smile at him. How had he gone sixteen years without her?

Parvati sat perched on a desk in the empty classroom, listening hard in case any of the aurors or corridor patrol should pass. She'd lit a candle, but it made her nervous, wondering if the flickering light could be noticed from outside. She was about to get up and put it out when she heard footsteps. She froze, at first suspecting she had been caught. She listened, and heard them pause outside the door. Her heart started to race, and she knew it wasn't because she thought she was about to be caught. It's him, it must be him, she thought, feeling the heat rise to her face.

Someone pushed the door open, and he walked in. It was him.

He stood and looked at her for a moment, closing the door quietly behind him. Tingling with fear and excitement, Parvati broke the silence.

"Hello, Blaise." She said, smiling at him.

She still could hardly believe that she was here, with him, together. He was amazing, he really was.

"Hello, Parvati." Blaise said, and Parvati could tell by his expression that he felt frustrated by the lack of eloquence in the word. That was one of the things about him, that she could tell exactly what he was thinking from his every expression.

Parvati giggled, then quickly stifled the sound. She turned around on the desk so that she was facing Blaise, and he started walking to her.

"How are you doing?" she began, then before he had time to answer, she added "You didn't have any trouble getting here?"

"No. Did you?" he asked.

"Oh no, not at all." Parvati said, watching him sit down on another desk so that he could face her.

Blaise was silent. Parvati wondered whatever could be bothering him. He looked like he felt awkward with her, and it made her nervous. She hadn't felt like that around him for the last four weeks. She remembered the first time they had met in secret, and how strange it had felt then. Frightening. To be alone with an almost stranger, despite her attraction to him, and to be out at night, where getting caught would not only get them detention, but end the privacy of their little affair. Parvati didn't mind that much, but she knew Blaise would. He had confessed that he was terrified by the idea already. His whole house would hate him, and torment him endlessly.

But it had gone smoothly that first night, when they had just sat and talked, almost into the morning, then slipped back to their dormitories. And that night had been followed by others, just like it. Blaise would pass Parvati a scrap of parchment with a location written on it, and they would meet there at midnight. Sometimes Parvati would do the same, only Blaise generally didn't like her locations as much. In fact, tonight had been her idea.

"Is something bothering you?" she asked Blaise, twisting her hands in her lap.

Blaise had been looking a little absently past her at the wall, but now turned his dark eyes on Parvati.

"No."

Parvati was not usually offended by his shortness, but tonight she was taken aback. She was about to ask him if he didn't want to be there tonight, and would rather her just go back to her dormitory, when he spoke.

"Nothing has really been bothering me. I've just been thinking." he looked at her again, and he seemed to be making up his mind about something.

"What've you been thinking about?" Parvati asked, relieved that he had finally said something, and didn't seem angry.

"Just things." he said. He reached forward and took Parvati's hands out of her lap and held them, gently and carefully, as if he thought she might wrench them away.

Parvati looked at him in astonishment. She was pleased, beyond pleased, with the contact, but it was certainly strange. Blaise almost never touched her. In the corridors during the day, when they pretended not to know each other, they were never near each other. But even when they were alone, and concerned only with the other, they never embraced, or held hands. It wasn't that it was rude, or chaste, just that it wasn't something they did.

"What sort of things?" Parvati asked, a little tingling starting to take place in her stomach again.

"All kind of things." Blaise answered her quietly. Then he stood up resolutely, pulling Parvati up by her hands. Parvati had just enough time to say "Blaise?" before he closed the step between them and kissed her.

Blaise had a harder time keeping quiet on the way back to his dormitory than he had when he was leaving it. He and Parvati had left the classroom in opposite directions, both grinning like idiots.

Despite how appealing he was to girls, Blaise had never found a girl that he found appealing. There were some attractive ones, but nothing like Parvati. Not even her sister, the girl from Ravenclaw. No, Parvati was something of her own. Something that he wanted.

It hadn't been his first kiss. He'd kissed other girls, to make his mother happy. She didn't really care what sort of romance he was in, but wanted to be sure that the family looks weren't going to waste. But this wasn't like those other fleeting pecks by enamored girls. He shivered, remembering Parvati's arms wrapped around his neck, and her soft mouth on his. There was nothing, he thought, nothing that could ruin his night now.

But he was wrong.

When he had whispered the password to the stone wall, and it had moved aside to reveal the entrance to the Slytherin dormitories, Blaise breathed a sigh of relief. He had made it back again, and tonight had been so much more important than all of the other nights.

He took a step towards the fire, which was just a pile of flickering coals now, but suddenly froze where he stood.

"Hello, Blaise," someone said, their smooth, arrogant voice rising from one of the leather armchairs by the fireplace.

Draco Malfoy stood up, his pointed face contorted in a triumphant grin.

"My, you're out late. What were you doing? I hope it was important."

Blaise had a powerful urge to hex Malfoy into a million pieces, but if he went for his wand, he knew Malfoy would do the same, and a full scale duel in the common room did not seem the way to end this quietly.

Blaise's mind worked quickly. The most believable story was that he had been meeting someone, because it was true. But Malfoy was sure to know if any of the other Slytherins were out, and even if he didn't, if he checked later he would find that no one had been out. Blaise had no friends in this house, he had never thought he would need them. But now he found that he would have given a lot to have someone lie for him.

"I was out." he said shortly, "I felt like a walk."

"At one o'clock in the morning?" Malfoy said skeptically.

"Yes. I couldn't sleep, and Crabbe snores." This last was true. Crabbe was a horrible roommate. But he had been for six years, and Blaise had never been caught leaving the dormitory in the middle of the night before.

He stood perfectly still, forcing himself to breath normally, and not to think of what the outcome would be if Malfoy decided he didn't like Blaise's story.

Blaise could see that the comment about Crabbe had done him good. Malfoy was thinking, his mind working over the situation. Blaise relaxed slightly. The only thing Malfoy could prove was that he had been out after hours. He had no way of knowing what Blaise had been doing.

"Fine. You can have it this once. But if I catch you again, you'll have detention." Malfoy said sourly.

Blaise nodded disdainfully, not daring to speak, and turned and went through the passage to their dormitory.

**That's chapter one, hope you liked, hope you'll review. Thanks, and now you can go read chapter two.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is chapter two of the same, I won't waste your time telling you about it. Read on.**

**Chapter Two**

Parvati got up unhappily from Transfiguration the next day. She hadn't been concentrating as much as she usually did, and her hair was now and unpleasant shade of green. Professor McGonagall had not even offered to help her put it right. Neither had the other Gryffindors. They were all sore at her for losing their house fifty points.

The night before, just ten wonderful minutes after her meeting with Blaise, Parvati had run into Filch on the stairs leading up to the portrait of the fat lady, and the Gryffindor common room. Why it had to have been Filch, she still didn't know. Of all the aurors and prefects patrolling the castle, it had to be Filch that caught her.

He'd been thrilled, of course. He'd dragged her all the way to McGonagall's office, cackling and threatening her with the horrors he would have dealt on her if detentions were done his way. McGonagall hadn't been much better. She'd been enraged that "with all the protection they bothered to put around the school" that Parvati "a Gryffindor!" had been sneaking out.

"Maybe this will help you to appreciate all the effort being expended for your protection, since apparently you don't." McGonagall had said, and Parvati had braced for the blow. And a blow it had been. Fifty points from Gryffindor, and she got three nights of detention with Filch, who couldn't have looked happier about the whole thing.

After being escorted back to her dormitory, Parvati had dragged herself inside, knowing that everyone would know, what with the racket Filch made at the door, trying to put in a last minute threat of some gruesome duty they would be doing tomorrow.

Parvati had run to her dormitory as quickly as she could, and jumped in bed, still wearing her robes. On the up side, she had reasoned, however angry McGonagall might be, she probably would not let Filch leave Parvati hanging by her thumbs in the dungeons for three days.

So, as she left Transfiguration, her hair still resolutely green, she felt fairly miserable. The other Gryffindors weren't too upset with her, seeing as most of them still remembered the time that Harry, Ron and Neville had lost Gryffindor a whole one hundred and fifty points, but still, fifty was a lot to regain. Most of them brushed past Parvati, heading to lunch without a word to her. Gloomily, Parvati trailed along behind them. She'd tried to look for Lavender, but she'd seen her best friend sneaking off down another corridor with Ron Weasley, and Parvati didn't much feel like walking in on that scene.

"Hi, Parvati," Parvati turned instantly to see who was daring to talk to her.

Harry and Hermione were hurrying to join her. Hermione was pulling her wand out of her book bag, and Parvati saw a chance of her hair being returned to its normal color.

"Hi, Hermione, Harry." Parvati said, trying to sound happy.

"Hey, Parvati," Harry said, grinning at her, "Your hair looks nice."

"Don't mention it." Parvati said unhappily.

Hermione gave Harry a reproving look, then said, "I think I can fix it, would you like me to try?"

"Yes, please! You can't very well make it worse."

"Parvati, you haven't seen Ron, have you?" Harry asked, while Hermione, wand in hand, motioned for Parvati to turn around.

"Yes, he went off towards the Great Hall with Lavender." Parvati said, turning obediently so that Hermione could see her back. She still caught the look Harry and Hermione shared before she turned away from them.

After a few moments of silence, and what sounded like Hermione biting her fingernails, Parvati felt a soft rustling in her hair, like it was being blown by a breeze, and a tingling from her scalp. She grabbed a lock of her hair and watched it slowly fade from brilliant green, back to it's normal black.

"Oh, thank you so much, Hermione. I'd have never gotten it out." she said, turning back around. Hermione smiled at her.

"You're welcome," she said, then added "We'll see you in Defense Against the Dark Arts this afternoon."

"Yeah, see you." Parvati said. Harry and Hermione left then, also moving towards the Great Hall, heads together, no doubt talking about Ron and Lavender again.

Parvati was about to follow them down the the Great Hall and lunch, when she heard someone behind her. She looked behind her, and to her amazement, it was Blaise.

Blaise had been waiting for Potter and the Granger girl to leave before he approached Parvati. Much as he did not like the other two Gryffindors, on principle if nothing else, he was grateful to Hermione for changing Parvati's hair back to normal. She was still beautiful, whatever color her hair was, but it would be much easier to talk to her if she looked normal.

Parvati looked immensely flustered as he walked towards her. Maybe she thought he was going to kiss her again. Well, he certainly wanted to, but he couldn't. Not during the day. Normally they didn't even talk during the day. Only at night, in those wonderful moments together...

"Hello, Parvati." Blaise said, strolling over to her.

"Hi, Blaise." Parvati said, still looking worried.

Blaise decided to forgo any niceties trying to figure out the issue by himself, and asked "What wrong?"

"I was just, well, I just wanted to tell you that I can't meet you tonight because I have detention." she said quickly, looking worried.

Blaise's first feeling was indignation for her. What could she have done that would make someone put her in detention? But another creeping feeling was slowly coming over him, a feeling of fear and dread, because he knew the only thing that she would have done to earn a punishment.

"Why have you got detention?" he asked, his voice unnaturally calm. His level voice seemed to frighten Parvati.

"I-I got caught last night, on the way back to the dormitory." she said, her own voice quavering.

"Who?"

"Filch. He took me to McGonagall."

Blaise stood for a moment, engulfed in a tide of horrible possibilities. He remembered Malfoy last night, accosting him, demanding to know where he had been. Saying he was going to "have an eye on him." Now Parvati had been caught, and taken to McGonagall. McGonagall might tell Snape, and Snape might tell the Slytherins, thinking it was a good joke, a Gryffindor in trouble. They would all laugh, and think it was funny, but Malfoy would certainly put two and two together. He was the only one who knew that Parvati hadn't been the only one out of bed last night. Would he figure it all out that fast? Would Blaise then be the one lone, despised member of his house?

All of this ran through his mind while he stood, staring silently down at Parvati, who was looking anxiously at him, a tinge of fear on her face, because she could tell what he was thinking. She didn't know about Malfoy, but she knew about Blaise's fears. And she was afraid.

Finally she asked "Blaise? Are you alright?"

He didn't answer, but looked away from her, not wanting to see her face when he spoke.

"Blaise, please tell me what you're thinking of." she pleaded. She no doubt would have gone on, but he had reached his decision, and it was time to talk.

"I'm sorry, Parvati. I can't meet you anymore. I can't be with you anymore. I should have known it from the beginning, the risk I was taking. I know it's not the same to you, and it's not fair, but that's the way it has to be. I can't risk being caught with you."

"Don't, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get caught, I didn't say anything about you, and I never will, and it will never happen again! We can just go back and it'll be like it was, it doesn't have to be like this!" she said, and her voice was so desperate, that he looked back down at her.

It was a mistake. Her eyes were shining with tears, and her beautiful face looked pained. He couldn't stand it, but he choked out the next words.

"Yes it does have to be like this. Goodbye, Parvati."

In the silence that rang in the corridor, he turned and ran, ran until he couldn't see her anymore, or hear her sobs. But he couldn't outrun the image of her desperate face in his mind.

Parvati spent the day in a haze of numbness. She knew she could have broken down, and screamed and sobbed everything that was boiling inside her, and it would have served Blaise well. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was too stunned. She almost didn't believe it, and she held onto this thought until her last class had finally ended. The people around her swarmed to the Great Hall for dinner, but Parvati moved listlessly through them until she finally escaped, and could walk up to her dormitory alone.

She climbed through the portrait whole and wandered through the empty common room towards the silent dormitories. Still shoving the flood of thoughts back into her mind, she pushed open the door to her dorm, and found that it was not empty.

Lavender was there, digging viciously through her trunk. She looked up when Parvati entered, and stood up, clutching a hairbrush in one hand, her wand in the other.

"Oh, hello, Parvati!" she trilled, smiling widely at her, "I'm just looking for my green blouse, you haven't borrowed it by any chance?"

"No, Lavender." Parvati said, and sat down on her bed, waiting for Lavender to leave.

"You haven't seen it anywhere? Maybe Hermione..."

"No! I have not seen your stupid shirt!" Parvati snapped, and Lavender looked up, startled "Why do you want it anyway?" Parvati continued.

"I'm going to see Ron," Lavender said indignantly, "What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing." Parvati mumbled, decidedly sorry that she had shouted at Lavender and aroused her curiosity.

"Well, I should think that you'd tell me! You've been acting so strange lately, and look at you now, all sullen, and you won't say a word. We're supposed to be friends, you know." Lavender said, straightening up righteously.

That did it. Parvati's despair turned to unforgiving anger in a second. It was as though the whole world were out to ruin her tonight. First, the man of her dreams told her she wasn't worth the risk of his housemates finding out about her, then her best friend, who hadn't spoken to her properly in weeks, unless it had to do with Ron Weasley, was accusing her of being a rotten friend.

"How dare you!" Parvati shouted, standing up and facing Lavender, "How could you say that, Lavender Brown? How could you accuse me of not talking to you? When you haven't spoken to me in weeks! Because of that Ron Weasley, all you want to talk about is snogging him. You haven't heard a word I've said for a month, and I don't care anymore! I'm through having to listen to you, and I'm through having to talk to you! Here," and Parvati fumbled for her wand while Lavender stood staring, open-mouthed, then she pointed it at Lavender's trunk, "Accio!" she cried, and Lavender's green blouse flew from somewhere in the trunk. Parvati caught it, then threw it in Lavender's face.

"There! Take your shirt and get out!" Parvati finished.

The two girls stood staring at one another for a minute, before Lavender balled her hands into her shirt, then turned and ran out of the room, casting a confused and distressed glance back at Parvati before disappearing down the stairs.

Parvati stood there for a minute longer, realizing what she'd done. Then she directed her wand at the door, which snapped shut, and she fell backwards onto her bed.

Lying there with her own angry words still ringing in her ears, Parvati let all her withheld feelings wash over her. It was horrible. The memory of Blaise talking to her, how he had looked pained, but that he had gotten over it, how he had left her there. Then she remembered the night before, in an empty classroom, how he had held her hands before he kissed her.

And she broke down, and rolled over, sobbing into her sheets.

Blaise had a hard day after that, which was to be followed by an even harder night.

It seemed like he saw Parvati everywhere he went the rest of the day. Outside the Great Hall, in corridors and classes. She never looked at him, but he stared shamelessly at her. He had never in his life been so concerned about someone else. And every time he saw her, the urge to rush to her and beg for forgiveness clawed at him, but each time he fought it back. He didn't need her. And he'd rather not have her, than have his whole family and house despise him, he continually assured himself.

But by the time dinner was finally over and he could flee to the Slytherin common room, he wasn't feeling any better, despite his self assurances.

Still, he forced himself to go back to the Slytherin common room, and try to forget Parvati, and act normal.

It was still early when he walked through the opening to the common room, and many of the students were up and talking. No one did anything beyond glance at him when he entered, and he took this as a good sign. He didn't normally make an effort to talk to anyone, and they extended the same attitude to him. He looked around carefully, but didn't see Malfoy.

Hoping that Malfoy was out somewhere with Pansy Parkinson, Blaise made for a chair by the fire. There were already a group of other sixth years there, and he sat down beside a boy he thought was called Rogers. Rogers ignored him, as did the rest of the group. Blaise wondered why this suddenly bothered him. This was how he had always acted with them, ignoring them and expecting the same. Somehow it seemed colder now, as though they weren't afraid of him, they just didn't want to talk to him.

He listened idly to their conversation, and after a few minutes had remembered why he never talked to them. Endless discussions of Quidditch, and discussing how horrible the other students were. Blaise had almost forgotten the conversation entirely when he heard something that made him sit up.

"That stupid Patil girl," Rogers was saying, "Turned her hair green in transfiguration and couldn't even get it switched back. McGonagall wouldn't even help her with it, since she went and lost Gryffindor fifty points last night."

"Idiot." One of the girls snorted.

"She is not!" Blaise was on his feet, glaring at the five other sixth years, who stared at him, surprise and resentment in their faces.

"Who asked you to join the discussion, Zabini?" Rogers sneered.

"She is not an idiot." Blaise repeated, too angry to realize what he was saying, "She's smart. In fact, all of your brains put together probably wouldn't equal half of her's!."

"Oh really? And what makes you say that, Zabini? Been seeing her or something?" the girl who had called Parvati an idiot said with a smirk.

Reason had slowly worked itself into Blaise's mind, and suddenly he turned his back on the other Slytherins and walked away from them, down the passage to his dormitory.

**End of chapter two, hope you liked, hope you'll go read the third and final chapter, and maybe find the time to review it as well.**


	3. Chapter 3

**So this story just kept getting longer until it became three chapters, but this is the last one. Hope you like it.**

**Chapter Three**

Blaise woke up the next morning with one idea firmly in his mind, and that was to find Parvati and put things straight with her.

He had hardly slept all night, and when he had, he had been plagued by dreams of Parvati's desperate face, or of angry words he imagined her saying.

He dressed, and left the dormitory before any of the other boys had woken. There were only a few seventh years in the common room, and they didn't bother him as he slipped out of the room and into the dungeon corridors beyond.

He tried to put together some sort of speech to tell Parvati when he found her. He debated between telling her how wonderful she was, and how important she was to him, or just cursing himself and begging her to forgive him. But however he put it, the words still sounded empty and meaningless. Just fancy words, that didn't show his feelings. And he would need more than that. He remembered the day before, when he had told her that she wasn't important to him, and how he didn't want her. He didn't know how to tell her that those words had been the lie, not the ones he was thinking now. And why would she believe him?

By the time he reached the entrance hall though, Blaise was starting to worry less about what he was going to say, and more about whether or not he was going to get a chance to say it. Scanning the Great Hall, he noticed that Parvati was not among those come for an early breakfast. That wasn't unusual, but once everyone was in the Great Hall eating breakfast, would he be able to convince Parvati to talk to him in private?

Blaise pushed the thought from his mind and sat down at the end of the Slytherin table nearest the door. There were only three other Slytherins at the table, and they were farther up it towards the head table, so he didn't say anything to them. Instead, he sat watching the doors to the Great Hall, sure that he couldn't miss Parvati from there. When she arrived, he could just walk over to her and ask her for a word outside. And if she refused, he would just have to talk to her there, in front of everyone.

He hoped she would not refuse.

But Parvati never arrived for breakfast. The other students slowly arrived, and finally started leaving, their chatter about classes and plans filling the room with noise that was meaningless to Blaise.

He waited until almost everyone had gone, and he had five minutes to get to his first class, before he finally left.

Why hadn't she come to breakfast? Maybe she was sick, or maybe she was just avoiding him. She could've seen him there by the door and left before he could see her.

The day continued, and by lunch, Blaise still had not seen Parvati, and he was nearly frantic. She should have been in Potions when he was there, but she wasn't. As soon as the class was over, Blaise almost ran from the dungeons up to the Great Hall. Most of the students were there, but after a quick search, he found that Parvati was again absent.

Blaise dropped down again at the Slytherin table. The food there looked spectacular, but he couldn't eat. He rested his face in his hands, staring unseeingly at the table. Maybe Parvati was avoiding him. Surely she would still be upset from the day before, but she couldn't have missed all of her classes without someone knowing, he thought. He looked up at the staff table, wavering on the edge of going to ask one of the professors if something had happened to Parvati. He was just about to stand up and look around the hall one last time before asking someone, when he heard a snatch of conversation from a group of seventh year Gryffindors passing.

"Can't believe that the whole class has to stay behind! I heard they made of mess of things, but that's got to be something." a tall girl was saying. The two other girls with her laughed, and one of them added "There's no telling what a sixth year with a wand will do. Remember when you blasted Flitwick's desk in Charms last year, when you were trying to hex that kettle?" The three girls walked past, still laughing, and Blaise's heart suddenly leaped. Parvati had Charms the period before lunch, he remembered. And today the class had been held back. That must be where she was.

Blaise left his bookbag at the table and quickly walked out into the entrance hall again. Once there, he took off running up the marble staircase.

Minutes later, he skittered into the Charms corridor, breathing hard, and staggered to a stop. He stood, catching his breath, and heard the murmur of voices from Flitwick's classroom. There was a strange smell seeming to come from it, and Blaise sniffed in disgust as it reached him.

Flitwick's squeaky voice suddenly rose above the others, and Blaise heard him say "That's enough now, that's enough! I will see to the rest of it. Please, all of you, off to lunch now. And Mr. Finnigan, if you ever do that again, you'll have detention!"

The door to the classroom opened, and smoke floated out into the hall. The students came out then, many of them coughing and covering their faces with their robes, and all of them covered in purple ashes.

They swarmed by Blaise without stopping to comment, and he worried for a moment that he wouldn't be able to recognize Parvati if she had her robes up. Panic swelled in him as the last of the students left, and only smoke was left drifting out of the room.

For a second there was silence. The students' footsteps faded away. Then there were voices inside, and Potter, Granger, and Weasley walked out. Behind them came Parvati.

Parvati was covered in the purple stuff, and it looked as though her robes were smoldering. But the sight of her was so relieving to Blaise that he hardly noticed. The Potter boy and his cohorts gave Blaise a funny look as they passed, but not wanting to linger in the smoke filled corridor, they hurried by and around the corner.

When Parvati saw Blaise, she stopped. She didn't say anything, but the look on her face was enough to tell him that he had a hard battle ahead.

"Please come with me." Blaise asked. To his immense surprise, she nodded.

Blaise turned, heart beating wildly in his chest, and walked down the hall to the first empty classroom he saw. He turned into it and held the door for Parvati. Once they were inside, he shut it behind them, and looked around, realizing in second that this was the same classroom they had been in two nights ago.

"Well? What do you want? To rub it in?" Parvati sharp voice turned Blaise around in an instant.

Now all of the things he had planned to say suddenly vanished from his mind, and he was left looking at the most beautiful woman he knew, and she was glaring back at him with what looked all the hatred in her body.

"I want to apologize, Parvati. I was wrong when I said you weren't worth it. And I was wrong when I thought I could live without you." Blaise began cautiously. Parvati did not look as though she had softened any.

"I was scared of something Malfoy said, and it caused me to act stupidly. I am so sorry, and there is nothing I will ever be able to do to make it up to you. But I understand I was wrong, and," he paused, worried by her unchanged expression, but then forged ahead.

"I want you back." he finished, then stared at her. He could never remember feeling so much as though his life hung in the balance of someone else's decision.

"Is that it?" Parvati said coldly.

The explosion in the classroom had been startling, but not frightening. One moment Seamus was nodding in concentration to Fligwick's lecture, the next, there was a loud bang, and the classroom was engulfed in some wretched smelling smoke. It had taken them near the hour to clean up most of the mess, and by that time Professor Flitwick was thoroughly distressed, and asked everyone to leave. Parvati had stayed behind with Ron, Hermione and Harry, to see if Flitwick needed any more help, but he had shooed them away, so they had left.

Stepping out of the still smoking room, Parvati had been shocked to see Blaise there, waiting, it seemed, for her. She'd been even more shocked when he asked her to come with him.

However, her shock turned to anger and confusion when he led her into the very classroom where the two of them had shared their first...she quickly pushed the thought from her mind.

Once inside, Blaise turned around, and after a moment's hesitation, stumbled into an apology. It sounded sincere, but as Parvati listened, her anger overrode her initial sympathy. How dare he unceremoniously dump her as too much of a problem, and then come drag her back to their meeting place just days before, and beg for her forgiveness?

She waited until he had finished before she spoke. He had stopped, and stood staring anxiously at her, like his life depended on it. Parvati stomach clenched. Here he was, the man of her dreams, begging her to forgive him, to take him back, and all she had to do was say one word, one little word, and she could have him back. It was all there in front of her. But there was something else nagging at her as well. That memory, the memory of the feeling coursing through her when Blaise had looked her in the face and told her he didn't want her. That he would rather spare his reputation than keep her as his love. That he loved himself more than he did her. The memory steeled her, planted the suspicions in her mind that she needed to say what she felt.

"Is that it?" she demanded.

Blaise's face fell.

"Do you need more?" he asked desperately.

"What do you think, Blaise Zabini? What do you expect me to think? To say? After you told me, just yesterday, that you didn't want me any more? That you didn't want to see me ever again because you were afraid to _get caught?_"

Blaise looked stunned. But his face suddenly became resolute, and Parvati felt a distant thrill, knowing that he was about to explain everything to her, to make it all right. Surely...

"You think I didn't want to see you again? Parvati, I know what I feel now. I didn't know it then. I didn't know what it would be like without you. I didn't miss you, Parvati: I was dying without you. I didn't remember what life was without you, and I thought it might not be as bad as being found out. But I was wrong. Realizing what living without you would be like, I know that it would be so much worse then being caught. Then anything. I swear, on my honor that-"

"Don't you swear on your honor if you have none!"

Parvati's remark threw Blaise off track for a second. It had slipped out of her without her consciously deciding to say it. It was all too much. It was everything she wanted to hear, but how could she believe it?

"If you don't trust my honor, then I'll swear by the one thing that will never change from now on, that has never changed: my love for you. I have never stopped loving you, and I never will. So please, Parvati, say you'll have me."

She was quiet, looking past him at the wall. She leaned back onto one of the desks, and gripped the edge of it as though it were the only thing holding her down.

It was all she wanted, and he had said it all. Wrong or right, there was no way she could refuse. Her mind wouldn't allow it.

"Yes. Yes, Blaise, I will." she whispered.

Blaise waited for Parvati's answer. He held his breath, watching her grip one of the desks, watching the tears come into her beautiful eyes.

"Yes. Yes, Blaise, I will."

He could barely hear her, but he wouldn't have missed the words for the world. Parvati finally looked at him, and Blaise saw tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Oh, Parvati. Please don't cry." Blaise said. And without a second thought, he leaned forward and kissed her again, pulling her to him. He felt her wrap her arms around him again, but it was different. It wasn't exciting and new, it was electrifying, passionate, and Blaise knew from the touch that it would be permanently engraved in both of their memories for the rest of their lives.

_~The End~_

**Hope you enjoyed, feel free to review, it's always nice. Thanks for reading.**


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